FLORIDA: Charter schools a growing trend

With charter school enrollment booming across Florida, nine groups are seeking to capitalize on the trend by opening new charters in Southwest Florida.

Six groups in Sarasota County and three in Manatee County have applied to start charter schools in the 2014-15 year.

The statewide deadline to submit applications for next school year passed earlier this month.

Throughout Florida, the number of charter schools is on the rise, jumping from 579 in 2012-13 to an estimated 625 this year, or by 8 percent, according to the state’s Department of Education.

Already at least 116 new charter school applications have been submitted in 17 districts, said Adam Miller, the charter school director for the FDOE.

“We do see across the public education system as a whole, there are more opportunities for choices, whether it’d be charter schools or magnet programs or career technical programs,” Miller said. “You see local school districts are providing additional choices for their families and I think you’ll continue to see that trend.”

In Sarasota County, for example, charter school enrollment is also rapidly rising.

A decade ago, about 1,807 students were in charters; this school year, it is 6,198.

The six new applications come as Sarasota district officials recently voiced concerns they were being labeled as too generous to charters for giving out extra money from its 1-mill referendum and 1.5-mill capital millage.

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